A 2-Bedroom Duplex-Up in the Heart of it All in Bucktown: 2052 W. North Avenue

This 2-bedroom duplex up at 2052 W. North Avenue in Bucktown came on the market in April 2021.

Built in 2004, the building has 8 units and parking.

According to a chatter from 2010, this building used to have some covered, but also some uncovered, parking as well as 4 visitors parking spaces.

The listing doesn’t say if the visitors parking spots remain available.

This unit has the living/dining room, the kitchen and a half bath on the main level.

The unit has dark hardwood floors (if you remember from our 2010 chatter, this building had unique stripped cherry floors. See the pictures from the prior sales of this unit).

The listing describes the kitchen as a “chef’s kitchen” with wood cabinets, stone counter tops, stainless steel appliances and a wine chiller.

There’s a gas fireplace in the living room.

The unit has a floating staircase which leads to the two bedrooms and 2 full baths.

The primary bedroom is en suite with a Jacuzzi tub, separate shower with body sprays, a double vanity and heated floors and has 2 walk-in-closets.

The second bedroom is also en suite.

The unit has the features buyers look for including central air, washer/dryer in the unit and a parking space is included.

It does have outdoor space in a 7×4 balcony.

The building has a common rooftop deck (seen in the listing pictures).

This building is located near the epicenter of the Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood, within steps of the Blue line subway stop, and dozens of shops and restaurants.

Listed at $465,000, will this sell quickly?

Daniel Slivka at @Properties has the listing. See the pictures and floor plan here.

You can also see it at the open house on Saturday Apr 17 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.

Unit #23E: 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1300 square feet, duplex up

  • Sold in January 2005 for $360,000
  • Sold in May 2015 for $375,000
  • Currently listed at $465,000 (includes parking space)
  • Assessments of $349 a month (includes exterior maintenance, scavenger and snow removal)
  • Taxes of $7057
  • Central Air
  • Washer/dryer in the unit
  • Gas fireplace
  • Bedroom #1: 10×15 (second floor)
  • Bedroom #2: 12×11 (second floor)
  • Living/dining room: 19×16 (main level)
  • Kitchen: 9×12 (main level)
  • Laundry room: 4×4 (second floor)
  • Balcony: 7×4 (main level)

 

58 Responses to “A 2-Bedroom Duplex-Up in the Heart of it All in Bucktown: 2052 W. North Avenue”

  1. I couldn’t live in a building with that exterior. Is that Jetson’s-influenced?

    And what is it with people who mount heads of animals on their bedroom walls?

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  2. Absolutely hideous facade. Fireplace is terrible. No room for a DR table unless you seriously compromise the living space.

    This really should be a rental for post college grads

    “Best location in Bucktown!”

    Thats fighting words

    “And what is it with people who mount heads of animals on their bedroom walls?”

    Fake European mount – A cry for Testosterone Replacement Therapy

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  3. Yay to Bucktown*! Boo to this property!

    It’s not terrible, but it’s not very good, either. Nice size, and I love a duplex up. Shared roofdeck is a big thumbs down, especially if this is top floor.

    *I know someone who claims that Bucktown is north of Armitage only.

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  4. Have to agree it looks like a first apartment for Chad’s and Brad’s. A few pro’s but lots of cons. Hideous building, weird layout, ugly decor. Parking included and reasonable HOA.
    Low inventory, someone will scoop it up.

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  5. “Best location in Bucktown!”

    As someone who lives in Bucktown, I’d say living on North Ave is the worst place to live in Bucktown…other than Western.

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  6. Poor aesthetics aside, its a decent size space in a trendy area. Probably needs a 50k+ renovation to make it less fugly.

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  7. This building has always looked like the back end of a cruise ship to me. Maybe if they had the Promenade deck lights across the top?

    The poor buildings on either side of it.. one to the right is beautiful IMO and tragically sandwiched. Other reminds me of the movie “Up” It needs a million balloons attached to it.

    Sigh, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone had to say whether it’s Bucktown or not. The “Welcome to Bucktown” signs on Wood St. are just north of Wabansia. So either someone in the city put the signs in the wrong place, or perhaps Wabansia is (one of) the boundaries?

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  8. Filled with white hipsters.

    Bucktown hasn’t been “hipster” since like 1997. Solid Bro territory for the last 20+ years.

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  9. Do some of these more outlandish asks recently reflect the increase in material costs for “New” construction? (Lumber for example is insane right now 2.5X higher since Nov)

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  10. “what is it with people who mount heads of animals on their bedroom walls”

    If only Jenny were still around…

    “Jetson’s-influenced”

    I believe it was meant to evoke a ship.

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  11. The owners may want to redecorate if they’re serious about selling. Nothing they can do about the street view, alas for them and the rest of us.

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  12. Exterior looks like it belongs in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

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  13. Curious – what’s the definition of a “Bro?”

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  14. I hate Bucktown. But this is not bucktown, sorry.

    Hipsters left this area long ago, it got too expensive over 15 years ago, hence the popularity of Logan sq, which hipster can’t afford anymore about 10 years ago, hence the popularity of avondale…see a pattern?

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  15. Bad building, and certainly not Bucktown. Not even close. Once you go South of Armitage there be dragons.

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  16. Is the sea blue interior paint a tongue-in-cheek nod to the exterior modeled after the back of a cruise ship?

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  17. In the exterior, are those horizontally placed ladders extending from the main part of the building to the “decorative” round metal detailing? Why???

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  18. “In the exterior, are those horizontally placed ladders extending from the main part of the building to the “decorative” round metal detailing? Why???”

    My guess is that the metal strips just below them are meant for planting ivy/vines. The vines would then grow across the ladders and provide shade. Doing so would definitely help with the cruise ship vibe.

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  19. I hate it. It’s the little details. The location of the toilet paper holder, fake brick and “coffered ceiling” the kitchen, utility room location, every light fixture is a different style, ect.

    Bulldoze and start again

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  20. There was an obscene amount of annoying hipsters in this area just 10 years ago. Ridiculous looking, mustachioed, skin tight jean wearing, parentally subsidized kidults were freakin everywhere. I suspect a lot of them were originally from white suburban areas in IL and the midwest. These interloping Mollys and Calebs drove up the price of everything before abandoning their gentrification-vacation to move back to whatever cul-de-sac they came from as soon as Molly got preggers or their parent’s stopped depositing money in their account. Around 2017, looking like a complete hipster douche went out of style and now these former fauxhemians are blending in amongst the non-attention starved folks.

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  21. “I hate Bucktown.”

    Bucktown remembers, Groove. It hates you, too.

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  22. “The stretch on Milwaukee south of North Ave (where I happen to be more often than N Damen, for whatever reason) has always been sketchy and Wicker Park itself always kinda scummy.”

    That’s why it really annoyed the hell out of me when every new restaurant was catering to the hipster crowd with $15 craft cocktails (that usually tasted like lighter fluid) and expensive farm-to-table, gluten free, organic “small plates”. I guess when Mommy and Daddy pay the rent on your $2000 1 bedroom apartment you can spend your barista salary on expensive meals every other day.

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  23. “the glory days of the Nineties when this place was Smashing Pumpkins wannabe and WXRT intelligent types”

    Those were the high water mark days for this great city. It may be a lifetime before we get there again. If you got to experience it you are a lucky soul.

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  24. the glory days of the Nineties

    Those were the high water mark days for this great city. It may be a lifetime before we get there again. If you got to experience it you are a lucky soul.

    I mean, I sorta get this; I was in my 20s in the ’90s, but, you know, it seemed so awesome BECAUSE I was in my 20s. It’s kind of like how the “best” years of Saturday Night Live correspond to your Jr. High/High School years.

    Now let’s all go see Naked Raygun at Dreamerz!!

    Curious – what’s the definition of a “Bro?”

    Generic, mainstream, (usually) white dude.

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  25. I too was in my 20’s in the 1990’s and Wicker Park and Bucktown were both much, much cooler than than they are today. For objectifiable reasons, not just nostalgia.

    Both neighborhoods were smack dab in the middle of gentrification and still retained a lot of their old world Chicago charm. The area attracted artists and punks and degenerates and alternative types. It had an actual gritty feel to the neighborhood because it was gritty. Most of Chicago was gritty – the early 90’s murder rates rivaled those of the truly gritty 1970’s.

    But Wicker park/bucktown were uniquely situated. I did a ride along with the police for an entire shift in the 14th district during this time and the officers said that while the area didn’t have any projects, they had a tremendous amount of poverty, and was relatively safer than other neigborhoods during the crack wars and crime waves. The gritty urban gentrifying feel attracted a different, hipper and cooler crowd than the already gentrified and ‘preppy’/frat boy feel of the Big 10 Lincoln Park and Lakeview, etc. It was like the entire Belmont/Clark Dunkin Crowd went west to six corners.

    The murder rate declined precipitiously in the late 1990’s and the neighborhoods took advantage of that. They kept a lot of the urban grit even though it was relatively safe. Unfortunately as it gentrified, it lost its Chicago charm and replaced it with Stalinist looking early 2000 Duplex ups (and million dollar homes) similiar to this unit above. The area lost it’s alternative feel and attracted day traders and speculators and faux-creative types (marketing losers).

    By 2004, the truly cool kid crowd moved nortwest up the blue line and Logan was the hip spot to be, but the 90’s alternative era was replaced with the 2000’s hipsters who were decidedly less cool than the pioneers of the areas south. And that cool kid crowd used to be the goth and alternative cool kids; but now they’re antifa communist reprobates LARPing for social justice, with their homemade shields. Even Double Door is closed and replaced with a YETI store, IIRC.

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  26. Matt the Coffeeman on April 14th, 2021 at 9:26 pm

    “Now let’s all go see Naked Raygun at Dreamerz!!”

    More than anything else, this whipsawed me to my youth. Thank you.

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  27. “Bucktown hasn’t been “hipster” since like 1997. Solid Bro territory for the last 20+ years.”

    Hipsters didn’t exist in the 90’s.

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  28. I’m watching a live stream of the Brooklyn Center disturbances, and it saddens me to see today’s kids engaged in warfare with the police. These kids got energy and drive, they could be an entire cultural movement of music, art, philosophy, and fashion. But Tinder killed the clubs, the bars are empty because weed is legal, the venues have gone bankrupt because of covid, and autotune killed rock music. So instead, they make homemade shields, and LARP with their black umbrellas, as the police and national guard shoots pepper spray at them.

    The bigger story to come of this is that I heard an alderman on the radio the other day scanning through stations. he said that only 2,000 people have applied to take the Chicago Police Entrance Exam and historically they have 30,000 or 40,000 apply, and 15,000 to 20,000 actually taking the exam. Only about half the people actually show up for the exam, and with only 1,000 people sitting this year, they 2021 class of recruits might be one of the smallest classes ever which can’t replace the retiring and transferring out.

    This is a bad sign for Chicago in general, with fewer cops, and fewer good cops, it’s not long before all of Chicago returns to the 1970’s French Connection gritty look and feel. There’s trouble ahead.

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  29. “The folks who run the Myopic bookstore even are cranky as all hell, and look exhausted and frustrated.”

    Operating a bookstore in a dense city neighborhood during a global pandemic could, perhaps, be the cause.

    Go figure.

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  30. “Sigh, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone had to say whether it’s Bucktown or not.”

    The realtor is calling it Bucktown in the listing, so I did too (and did in 2010 when we last chattered about this building.)

    At least it has consistently stayed as Bucktown the last 11 years.

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  31. “This is a bad sign for Chicago in general, with fewer cops, and fewer good cops, it’s not long before all of Chicago returns to the 1970’s French Connection gritty look and feel. There’s trouble ahead.”

    I’m expecting a replay of New Orleans from the early 90s — with Len Davis and Antoinette Frank-types getting hired, and cartels from the south coming up to “help” run things.

    I’m old enough to remember what cities were like in the late 60s and the 70s, after the riots. It was not pretty (or safe), and it took 30 years for most places to recover.

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  32. “At least it has consistently stayed as Bucktown the last 11 years.”
    —————————
    Only in your dreams.

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  33. “The realtor is calling it Bucktown in the listing”

    The older, born and raised can have their own opinion, they’re entitled, but pretty much everyone that currently lives here will say North Ave is the southern border with some debate at it being Bloomingdale.

    Hipsters, bros…sure the younger renting crowd still exists, mostly on Milwaukee Ave, but the majority of the people that live are families.

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  34. “Operating a bookstore in a dense city neighborhood during a global pandemic could, perhaps, be the cause.

    Go figure.”

    Nice N=1

    All the indies I’ve been in are doing well and have happy staff.

    Its probably just you or Bucktown causing the problems

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  35. https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-carjacking-wicker-park-north-hoyne-police/10516270/

    Carjackers smash window, pull woman and daughter, 2, from vehicle in Wicker Park carjacking, Chicago police say

    A woman and her daughter were carjacked Wednesday in Wicker Park on the Northwest Side, while waiting for their husband and father to get off work.

    About 11:15 p.m., the woman, 32, and her 2-year-old daughter were sitting in their parked Cadillac sedan in the 1200-block of North Hoyne Avenue, when two men approached her, broke her driver’s-side window with a bat, and forced her and the child from the car, Chicago police said.

    One of the men fled in the woman’s car, a 2017 Cadillac. The other ran through an alley, police said.

    Surveillance footage of the intersection at Division and Hoyne shows the first police car responding to the 911 call around 11:20pm.

    The carjacking that took place out of view a few minutes before did not appear to be caught on video.

    * * * * * * * *

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  36. My god this building is ugly. I would be too embarrassed to live here but in today’s market, this price suggests it will get purchased. I also say thumbs down on the shared roof deck. Living on North ave is noisy enough – – constant parties above your head is also awful. The faux exposed brick in the new construction is absolutely cringeworthy….but I do prefer the interior to the exterior even though they look like they are in different buildings.

    This looks like the developer who built this took a huge dump on the sidewalk. I feel terrible for the two buildings on either side but especially for that gorgeous red stone…ugh..

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  37. “The older, born and raised can have their own opinion, they’re entitled, but pretty much everyone that currently lives here will say North Ave is the southern border with some debate at it being Bloomingdale.”

    With “here” = the reality-based community of metropolitan Chicago.

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  38. the good, cheap Middle Easter food across the street at Sultan’s Market is a plus.

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  39. “With “here” = the reality-based community of metropolitan Chicago.”
    ————————–
    Trying to bootstrap your delusions into reality is doomed to fail. Just ask the Trumpsters about the 2020 election. A lie, or a wish, does not become truth by dint of repetition.

    The unit sucks, even by Wicker Park standards. Still, price is low enough.

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  40. Go seek professional help for your TDS johnc, you need heavy doses of strong medication. Your case might be terminal.

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  41. Someone mentioned Naked Raygun. I knew a guy in that band – Pierre Kezdy. Brother of a friend of mine. Went to a few BBQs where I got to talk to him. Good guy and very soft spoken. Died too young.

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  42. “TDS”

    You left off the “b” hd–BTDS. Terminal case.

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  43. “You left off the “b” hd–BTDS. Terminal case.”

    Bucktown Trump Derangement Syndrome. johnc was talking about yjr boundaries of Bucktown but managed to squeeze a comment about Trump. That’s the definition of TDS. Trump lives in his head all day, he can’t have a normal thought without the former president entering his stream of consciousness. It’s a real disorder, it doesn’t go away easily. Need lots of treatment.

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  44. Go seek professional help for your TDS johnc, you need heavy doses of strong medication. Your case might be terminal.
    ——————————-
    So using a modern example of the chronic lie becomes a medical condition?

    Not even a nice try at being coherent with that one, homedelete.

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  45. “So using a modern example of the chronic lie becomes a medical condition?”

    He lives in your head, man, you don’t even see you have a problem. You won’t even it admit. Years of therapy ahead for you.

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  46. Laura Louzader on April 15th, 2021 at 4:18 pm

    The building is absolutely hideous, and the interior is too much “on-trend”, which trend started to date about 5 years ago.

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  47. One minute we’re talking Naked Raygun, then of course it’s natural to mention Big Black, and before you know it, we’ve arrived at Shellac. When I first moved to Chicago in 08, I wondered, “What if I run into Albini while out walking around, and I go to say hello, and here I am now, stuffed into my Brooks Brother’s d-bag uniform.” But it never happend.

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  48. “All the indies I’ve been in are doing well and have happy staff.”

    You don’t live in Chicago JohnnyU, remember?

    Indies in real trouble in Chicago. The West Loop bookstore can’t make it. She hasn’t been paying herself for months. The neighborhood started a Go Fund Me to try and save her.

    ALL the bookstores in Chicago are under enormous pressure. They simply don’t have the online capabilities to compete with Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Many of them have coffee shops/cafes which have been worthless over the last year.

    Support your local bookstore, or even Barnes & Noble, if you can.

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  49. No, I was thinking BuckTown Derangement Syndrome.

    ““on-trend”, which trend started to date about 5 years ago.”

    I know that the timewarp of the past year has been rough, but that trend started to date (hard) with the collapse of Bear Stearns.

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  50. “Indies in real trouble in Chicago. The West Loop bookstore can’t make it. She hasn’t been paying herself for months. The neighborhood started a Go Fund Me to try and save her.

    ALL the bookstores in Chicago are under enormous pressure. They simply don’t have the online capabilities to compete with Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Many of them have coffee shops/cafes which have been worthless over the last year.

    Support your local bookstore, or even Barnes & Noble, if you can.”

    I guess its a good thing that I dont live in Chicago. We must do more than mouth service to “Shop Local”

    The pressure is a bullshit excuse. Cultivate and create a loyal clientele and they’ll order on line from you.

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  51. “The pressure is a bullshit excuse. Cultivate and create a loyal clientele and they’ll order on line from you.”

    Never run a retail business, huh, JohnnyU?

    It’s SO easy to just say “the pressure is bullshit” when you live in another state and have no first hand experience about what is going on with Chicago businesses during the pandemic.

    So many have been getting crushed. So, so difficult.

    Thank goodness for the PPP or it would have been much worse.

    https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/03/18/pandemic-forced-this-west-loop-bookstore-to-close-days-after-grand-opening-now-its-fighting-to-survive/

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  52. “ Never run a retail business, huh, JohnnyU?”

    I know owners of 2 independent bookstores, so I have a good frame of reference. Let us know your credentials regarding independent bookstores the topic we’re discussing, not your usual goal post moving

    “ It’s SO easy to just say “the pressure is bullshit” when you live in another state and have no first hand experience about what is going on with Chicago businesses during the pandemic.”

    Please explain the difference COVID is causing Chicago, that other major cities aren’t facing – outside of a useless mayor and Gov Lardass?

    “ Thank goodness for the PPP or it would have been much worse”

    How would a new business create a loyal clientele? JFC she even admits that they didn’t have a customer base. Do you even read the crap you post that you thinks supports your opinions?

    You are dumber than a stump

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  53. “Please explain the difference COVID is causing Chicago, that other major cities aren’t facing – outside of a useless mayor and Gov Lardass?”

    Um…each state, and even city, has had different COVID regulations.

    Go pound sand.

    If you’re not in Chicago you have NO IDEA what is going on here with our businesses.

    None.

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  54. well they’re back

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D30TXwXkVk

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  55. “ Um…each state, and even city, has had different COVID regulations.
    Go pound sand.
    If you’re not in Chicago you have NO IDEA what is going on here with our businesses.
    None.”

    So you were talking out your ass again.

    Got it

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  56. “So you were talking out your ass again”

    Like I said JohnnyU: GO POUND SAND.

    You have no idea sitting in rural Indiana what is going on at Unabridged Books in Chicago.

    None. Nada.

    It’s laughable.

    Apparently, your indie bookstores in whatever state you’re in JohnnyU are doing better than many of those around the United States.

    Kudos. But your friend’s bookstores aren’t in Chicago where there are different COVID regulations on when they can reopen, who can be in the stores, what kind of events they can host.

    It’s just really, really tough out there right now. Going to have a big impact on the industry. I hope most of them can survive into 2022.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/books/book-sales-publishing-pandemic-coronavirus.html

    Like the big retailers, independent bookstores were also flooded with online orders, a welcome surge of business when their doors were closed, but one they were poorly set up to manage — some stores went from getting maybe a dozen orders a day to hundreds last spring. For many of them, the growth in online sales still wasn’t enough.

    “Most of the stores didn’t make any money last year,” said Allison Hill, the chief executive of the American Booksellers Association, a trade group for independent stores.

    Next month, Penguin Random House will start giving independent bookstores in the United States an extra month to pay their invoices in an effort to help them recover from the pandemic and stay in business in the long term.

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  57. “ Like the big retailers, independent bookstores were also flooded with online orders, a welcome surge of business when their doors were closed, but one they were poorly set up to manage — some stores went from getting maybe a dozen orders a day to hundreds last spring. For many of them, the growth in online sales still wasn’t enough.”

    Really odd that bookstores that couldn’t adapt are closing…

    How does a NYT link describe what’s going on specifically to Chicago – which was your contention?

    “ Kudos. But your friend’s bookstores aren’t in Chicago where there are different COVID regulations on when they can reopen, who can be in the stores, what kind of events they can host.”

    No events. Limited number of shoppers in store.

    Please detail these extraordinary claims you made about the draconian regulations only Chicago bookstores have to deal with

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  58. “Um…each state, and even city, has had different COVID regulations.
    Go pound sand”

    When’s the last time pre-covid an independent book store was at max capacity or even 50% capacity in their stores?

    Consumer habits changed pre-covid buying books and continues to change post-covid. The current regulations have minimal impact on independent books stores foot traffic.

    The last time I stepped inside a Barnes & Noble, independent book store, or any brick & motor store searching for a book was 7+ years ago?

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